Living the Dream in Retirement
While in Vegas I had the opportunity to go to the festive 32nd Annual Holiday Cactus Garden Lights. I’ve been to the cactus garden during daytime on a prior visit to Ethel M Chocolates and a few years ago, tried to attend this event only to arrive during a power outage.
This year, no power outage and an unseasonably mild December evening allowing us to stroll through the lovely, lighted cactus garden with Christmas music playing…..
After being on vacation for a week, I came back my garden bursting with blooms.
Then there’s my beloved Peony Tree that I moved from my home of many years to my new one nearly three years ago. It’s so beautiful I had to give it its own gallery of multiple photos.
Always up for anything garden-related, my visit to this Palm Springs botanical garden was an opportunity to see more Cacti varieties than I knew existed.
Established in Palm Springs since 1938, this privately-owned arboretum was created to share the beauty and extraordinary varieties of desert plants with everyone who visits. The featured desert trees, plants, and cacti come from around the world and range in size from miniature to giants!
The Moortens are desert plant specialists and invite you to their residence estate. Moorten Botanical Garden is a living museum of desert lore and has something of interest for everyone with glistening crystals, colorful rocks, ancient fossils, and pioneer and gold mining relics.
The classic collections on display are comprised of more than 3000 varieties of plants designed in concentrated habitats along a nature trail. In the world’s first Cactarium (a word coined by The Moortens), visitors will discover a special exhibition of rare plants seen nowhere else.
This content is courtesy of: http://www.moortenbotanicalgarden.com
One afternoon my sister and I headed out to explore this sculpture garden. It exceeded our expectations natural beauty in a peaceful setting – plants, trees, water features, rock formations and of course the sculptures. It was the definition of Zen.
My favorite sculpture “Walks Among the Stars” is worth photographing from several angles.
Some fun photos taken last weekend on a perfect, sunny autumn day at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.
A darling boutique near me recently announced they were closing but were offering a final craft class – a “garden sparkler”. It was on Saturday late afternoon and I signed up at once!
Of us nine attendees, I was the newby but not for long. After receiving our supplies and instructions, we started the process of choosing beads, cutting wire and assembling our creation. It was a spirited group with lots of great conversations happening simultaneously.
After 3 1/2 hours we were winding up so I knew this morning I’d need my trusty glue gun to assure everything would stay put. While doing so, I got out my beading supplies and added a cute beaded topper and strand of sparkling beads to wrap the cork.
Here’s my creation, and while not perfect it’s very pretty – and it does sparkle!
For the last week Michigan weather has been a bit erratic with lots of rain, sun, gloomy, very hot then cooler than usual – and very windy. It’s hard to photograph flowers with the wind whipping them to and fro. Early today, before the wind picked up I went for it and captured these beauties.
